A

Yes I buy all of my cake pop bags on ebay too. I can't remember off the top of my head but I think I usually pay around £4-5 for 100-150 of them.

AHi guys. I've missed soo much so sorry if I miss anyone out.

I've had such a busy day, provided meals on wheels to my 95 yr old grandad and 87 yr old auntie, cut said aunties toenails, went to tesco for ingredients for sundays cakes then came home to nurse my raging temperature!

Cazza, thankyou so much, I laughed out loud at your kitchen comment!

Natt, can the DWP do more to help you? It might be worth an ask. My son finishes college this year and he says "blah, blah, blah when I'm working" and I think he's go no idea how hard it's going to be. I'm 41 this year and pretty much unemployable, I'm fit and strong and have good references but having a disabled child means an employer wouldn't look twice at me. If I ran my own business I wouldn't employ me either, I'd need too much time off for appointments, illness and emergencies. It's a terrible time to be looking for work.

AOops, pressed reply too early! Stopped me waffling I suppose.

Nanny I think that rose is lovely, I'd be chuffed if I could make one like that!

AThanks for the get well wishes. :-) Sorry this is stoppy, starty, I think my brain is half asleep! My daughter is much better again today. :-)

A

I'm not sure that they would help me, but I don't know how much I want them to at the moment to be honest

AThanks all.

OK this is a new thing or me, the person I'm making the wedding cake got in touch today and she wants to come over with her mum tomorrow, short notice I know but the right thing to do is makes cakes isn't it?

Good thats what I've done, only small ones in lemon, jam and cream and choc with ganache, abit nervous as not done this before, scary stuff!!

ABarbara, you'll be fine!!:-D

When I have consultations, I cut a piece from each cake and present them on plate with glasses of water and forks.

Hope all goes well!!

AThanks Bashini, yeah I know, its probaly because I dont know them I guess, I did this two yrs ago for a friend of my daughters, she lives in Cardiff, I made 6 cupcakes, and a fruit cakes, took them down, (apparently she was abit of a bridezilla) gosh her Mum was something else believe me, well they oooo and arrr, I went home and waited for replies, only to be told, they were going with a local bakery, which was fine, until she added, who she felt had more experience with wedding cakes, that hurt, yes she was right I didn't, but just thought she could have been abit more tactful.

Anyway my daughter went to her wedding and she said it looked just like the pic she gave me, but the taste she said was another thing, dry, tasteless, anaemic looking, so I guess I felt abit smug about that and wasn't sorry in the least.

AGlad you and Little one are feeling better Maisie.

Maisie, if you're 41 and Stand no chance of getting a job, well me at 56, forget it, thats why I should be happy to be where I am, you may or may not think I'm mad or giving up a fulltime job to go partime, but the way I look at it is, I've been working fulltime with a break of 7 yrs for kids since I've been 14 and I think its about time I thought about me. My love of cakes having taken over my life and its fab having something I love doing so much.

I would say 'you get what you pay for' Nanny but my guess is they paid more and got less.  I think your bride will be lucky to have you make her cake.  You are obviously a perfectionist and your wedding cake will be wonderful.  How exciting!

AHi Dayscakes, the cake she wanted was one out of the Peggy porschan book, personally I thought it was tacty looking, all pink, a sickly pink with tiny roses all over it, not classy at all, never mind.

Now when my work colleague asked me to make hers last , I did at first say no, I felt maybe they were right.

My friend wasn't having any of it though bless her, she Sat me down and said, right, break it down and all you have is 3 cakes, and of course she was right but with a little stress added on ha ha, I loved making her cake, and was pleased with it, however I can still learn from it, do things differently next time.

AI feel for you natt, sounds like you're stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Nanny, I say good for you, I'm glad you've been able to go part time and enjoy baking. And I also think your bride us lucky to gave you. If you think that cake's tacky, you should see my next one, it's going to be tacktastic!

I'm off to bed now, I know it's early but I'm exhausted and I need to start my cakes in the morning, I haven't do much as cut a letter out yet! Night all. :-)

AHi Barbara, similar thing happen to me very recently. This lady wanted a barbie cake and she started explaining what it is and I said that I what you want and I've got all the things to make it and I have made a few since I started baking. But later on she called and said she found one baker near to her and doesn't want to take a risk as it's for her daughter. It REALLY hurt me.

But like Kathy I truly believe that you get what you paid for!!!

Right, I've baked the cakes, made some red blossoms and tomorrow more baking and flower making and many more......

Good night all!!!

Bashini. I had a doll cake problem too! Got asked if I'd done one before and when I said no but I can most certainly do it, I got a 'thanks but no thanks, I'll find someone more experiences' I was so shocked!

AWell my wedding cake is due on Friday and I've been working non stop on it (apart from a break on Sat night to see the delicious Gary Barlow)!!!! Well worth it.

Anyway back to cake; top tier which unusually is fruit, is covered along with the three cake drums. Baked a 12" rich chocolate cake and 10 " caramel ombré cake today which are currently filled and part ganached, now in fridge.

Dining table covered in ivy, ruscus, eucalyptus, roses, stephanotis and dendrobium orchids which are done apart from calyx for the roses. A book I have suggests leaving these until near the wiring process in the hopes of reducing breakages. All flowers steamed and taped.

My to do list is scaring me; finish ganaching and covering the two big cakes is priority, make floral decoration for top tier along with some ribbon and organza fillers, then my nemesis - wiring the flowers and foliage into sprays for the second and third tiers. :cry:

By end of Thurs, cakes onto drums, dowelled and sprayed with pearl, pearl beading added. Flower sprays boxed up along with vases (separators).

Good thing today, the cakes all smelled and looked great when I split them so that made me feel good. I tried Covapaste for the first time yesterday which worked beautifully but by the time I've kneaded the paste for the other two tiers tomorrow I'll have muscles like Hercules.;-) Bad thing today my milk choc ganache split but I managed to get it back thanks to help from Internet!!

Another day tomorrow. Off to bed ready for a very early start. G' night all.

AWow! Catsmum I am sooooo looking forward to seeing the pics! Sounds amazing.

Oh Bashini - she definitely didn't deserve one of your cakes. I thought that they would have died out (a bit like power rangers! ). Maybe I should get up to speed again. I used to hate doing them.

Maisie hope you are soon feeling better.

AMorning everyone. Sounds like i'm not on my own then with these odd customers?.

Oh catsmum your cake sounds amazing I must say, I hope when I write everything Have to make it sounds half as good!

Kathy, I definitely dont think you have anything prove judging by your cake stall.

Bashini, sounds nice, what you making? I made one two more roses they do look abit better thankfully.

ACatsmum, remind me, what is an Ombre cake?

AGood Morning friends.....

Natt, if these people come back for a cake, we should charge even more!!!!:lol:

Cats mum, I can't wait to your cake!!! Did you attached the small cake drum into the main ones? I have to cut the 4" ones to the size of 3"!!! It's going to be a difficult task!!!

Kathy, I love making doll cakes!!!:)

Barbara, I am going to bake the giant cupcake today and I have two 1st birthday cakes. One is a Tinkerbell cake and the other I have to make a lion to go on the top. Hope to do it in Rice Krispy treats. :) love to see your cake too!

ARice krispies, how does that work then? What do you do? Only asking as got a rally car to make to go on top of a cake, to do it in icing will probably be heavy, but never worked with rice krispies.

Barbara, Natt and Bashini- gosh some people are so tactless! If someone said that to me it would take me an age to get over it. My confidence would take a tumble that's for sure.

Maisie, your daughter and her disability shouldn't be an issue when it comes to jobs. Employers can't and shouldn't discriminate. Although from what you say it sounds as if you've decided to be a stay at home mum for the time being because it will be difficult to hold down a job? 

Catsmum, I think the bride and groom plan to keep the top tier for their anniversary. That used to be a tradition I think. Used to be all wedding cakes were all fruitcake too weren't they. In which case I'm glad people are now choosing yummier flavours for their cakes! Can I ask why are there 3 cake drums? Are they all for the bottom? I'm interested to hear (and see- do show us pictures!) about your design!

Barbara, an ombre cake is a cake with graduating colours as so:

http://www.withsprinklesontop.net/?p=1593

I used to think that if you had the frosting/fondant in graduating colours- that counted as ombre but I'm not so sure now. I think perhaps the inside is usually ombre as well.

Hi everyone - what modelling paste do you all recommend or do you make your own?  Also - what petal paste do you use?  Reason for my question is that I was going to start on bits for my garden cake and found that my Platinum Paste had gone rock hard because somebody broke the container and didn't speak up!   As I now have to buy some new, I thought I would ask what sort of paste you all use.  I have tried (without success) to get the recipe for the one using denture fixture powder but to no avail - I guess nobody ever used it.

Thanks all

Kathy

AHi all Another coat of ganache and back in fridge to set up. Middle tier just about there I think. Bashini, my DH had a rethink on the small drums as we had to cut a groove in each small drum to take the "slightly" smaller vases. He decided to use a 6" drum and cut the middle out (like a polo mint) to make a collar around the vases. These were glued onto the larger drums and the vases will be slotted in. It took a lot of careful measuring to ensure the vases would be centralised. Allow plenty of time and if you can, do it way in advance to take off some of the pressure.

The ombré cake is on the BBC Good Food website ( search Chocolate Caramel Ombré) and refers to the different layers( vanilla, caramel, choc caramel and chocolate). I ended up only using the first three layers as it would have been too deep. The base tier is the rich choc wedding cake off that site so I figured they had plenty of choc cake.

Brides mother wanted to do the fruit cake but bride just wanted a small fruit cake hence it being the top tier, which adds to the weight to be supported:(

As far as flower paste I've been using the one supplied by Piece of Cake in Thame which comes in a number of colours.

Ok back to it.! Catch up later.

AHa right, thanks Jean. Very pretty!

Kathy just adding tylose to fondant will give you a quicker drying sugarpaste than fondant alone and is good for modelling figures but it does not have the lovely stretch that a good flower paste will have and which can make all the difference to really fine petals.  I have tried premade and powdered (add the water) but I still prefer a home made one.  Nicholas Lodge is good and any of the similar ones.  Once I have made it I cut it into little blocks, vacuum seal and freeze.  Keeps for months then and is perfectly fine on defrosting.  I also don't seem to have problems with it in the humidity like I am having with the  satin ice gumpaste that I am using at the moment.  It was recommended but I wouldn't personally use it again as it flops really badly when there is a bit of humidity, rather than drying, hence all my dead roses with the floppy petals that I was talking about way back.  This has never happened with home made paste.

Yes, I had a total disaster with the white chocolate ganache.  I don't think it had anything to do with the temperature.  I usually use Callebaut white chocolate and have never had any problems, even at 32C.  I had run out, though, and have to order from another state and wanted to wait until the weather was cooler as it has to be posted and takes 5 days to get to me. So I bought Nestle from the supermarket.  I will never use it again.  A couple of others commented on the same thread that they had also had disasters with white chocolate ganache when they used Nestle so it is obviously the problem.

AKathy - I use 50/50 flower paste and sugarpaste, I have use tylose powder and sugarpaste but I find it not to be as flexible. The flower paste I use is the Squires Kitchen one.

Jean - I agree, people are tactless! I had no reason to have my confidence knocked once I checked the work of the 'more experienced' people that she had chosen, it shows that people have no idea how to find the best people for the job

Thanks Cazza - I also prefer home made but got lazy.  I will check out the Nicholas Lodge recipe on line.  Sounds like you have to get the right chocolate brand sorted for ganache.  Am going to try to make it soon so am making notes from all these threads!

Natt - thanks - I was also worried about the stretchyness (is that a word?) and Cazza also picked up on that.  I love a good stretch!!   Yeah and don't pay any attention to customers who say stuff like that.  Why is it we always linger on the bad comments and soon forget the good ones?

Kathy